Bay of Islands!

27 februari 2019 - Bay Of Islands, Nieuw-Zeeland

Hi there, here we are again! Sorry for this post being a bit late, but I hope you still enjoy it! 

Last week has been quite busy! On Monday Oliver and Tessa took us with them to some beautiful places in the area. We went to the Natural Bridge, which is a rock formation that has been carved out, and what's left looks like a bridge. This was a really nice place! After the Natural Bridge we got to a beautiful looking waterfall which is called Marakopa Falls. Personally, this was the most beautiful thing I've seen in New Zealand.. It was just magnificent. I can't describe how it looked, a picture says more than a thousand words. While it was actually not allowed, we walked down to the bottom of the waterfalls, which made you feel so small compared to the massive rock formation ahead of you! Good, after we had seen the falls, Oliver wanted to show us something called Hole in the Rock, but he didn't know exactly where it was, so we ended up driving on a very narrow gravel road for like 40 or 50 kms haha. This was actually quite cool to be honest! When we got off the road it was already time for dinner, so we headed back home. 

On Tuesday Oliver and Tessa took us for a ride a little to the northeast, we saw some things like a massive dam, a little town and we ended up at the Blue Springs in Putaruru. This was so beautiful! Never ever in my life have I seen such clear water! It was so blue, and in combination with the green plants, it was an amazing sight! After this we headed back home again to have dinner. 

On Wednesday we headed to the Bay of Islands. We had to be at Anna's by 8 in the morning, as she would take us to Hamilton, where we had to catch the bus. We started our journey to the far north with a 80 min delay.. It wondered if we would still make our transfer in Auckland, as we had a transfer that was exactly as long as our delay. Luckily they hold back our second bus, so we made it to Paihia by 5pm. We had dinner and after that went to bed, as we were exhausted by the long trip. 

On Thursday we booked a boat tour through the Bay, which took us along the 144 islands, to the well known Hole in the Rock. On our way to the Hole in the Rock, the sailor got a report that there would be a group of Bottlenose Dolphins not far from us. He immediately turned the boat and got to the given location. As we got closer, we got to see quite a large group of dolphins! It was so cool to see these animals in their natural habitat! Just incredible! We looked at them for a while, and then sailed on to the Hole in the Rock. This was quite cool, as it was like an island, but you could sail through the hole in it. On our way back to mainland, we had a lunch at one of the bays, which was very good! We really enjoyed the tour, although the weather wasn't too good. In the afternoon we discovered the town centre, did some souvenir shopping and had a rest before having dinner. We also booked a bus tour for the next day. This would take us all the way up to Cape Reinga, which is the most northern point of New Zealand! This trip would take 11 hours, which meant we had to get up early. We would be picked up at 7.15 from our stay. 

So on Friday we got up early to go and do the bus tour. We drove for a couple of hours, then had lunch, and got to Cape Reinga at about 1 or 2pm. Unfortunately, due to cyclone Oma which was close to New Zealand, it was super misty and foggy around there, so we couldn't see that much.. Normally you would be able to see how the Tasman sea and the Pacific sea would meet each other, but we couldn't. After Cape Reinga we could do sandboarding on the dunes, but we didn't do it because of the bad weather. The way back to Paihia took us along 90 mile beach, which is actually a highway that is on the beach, quite cool. We got back in Paihia at 6pm, and we were so tired of the trip, we had a takeaway dinner and got to sleep quite early haha. 

On Saturday, I woke up to something that already made my day. This lovely crazy girl had blown up some balloons in the middle of the night to decorate our room for my birthday 😂. I got some birthday cards, thanks for that! What followed was a quiet day, and as we wandered around town in the morning, we decided to hire a scooter to go and explore the area by ourselves. We hired it for 4 hours, and discovered some beautiful spots in the area! After this trip we had a rest, before we went to have dinner in a very fancy restaurant. This was known for its ribs. The waitress said that the ribs were quite small, so I ordered two of them. When it arrived, I was surprised by its size haha! They were way bigger than expected! Of course I still managed to eat it all! I had a great birthday! 

On Sunday we went back to Otorohanga. This means another very long bus trip.. We traveled from 1.30pm till 10pm before we got back to our beds. We deserved a nice sleep. 

A blog post concerning the last week will be posted before we leave, so keep an eye out! 

See ya! 

2 Reacties

  1. Ex kiwikoe:
    27 februari 2019
    nice done together see you soon
  2. Annemie:
    27 februari 2019
    Wauw, wat een prachtig verhaal weer!!!! Lieve groet, Annemie